Electronic commerce involves transactions occurring through the World Wide Web, referred to as the web, over the Internet. These transactions typically involve the purchase of products by consumers. Sellers or retailers may maintain web sites, and consumers may electronically access those web sites in order to view descriptions of products. Permitting users or consumers to purchase products results in certain advantages for both sellers and consumers. A seller need not incur the expense of maintaining a retail store and therefore may also store the products for sale in a location having reduced warehousing expenses. The consumers may shop via their computers and therefore need not visit retail stores to make purchases, potentially saving them time. Also, electronic sales of products may typically occur at anytime, meaning that a consumer need not only shop during certain retail hours.
Electronic sales also involve potentially different retailer concerns than compared with physical retail stores. For instance, when users enter credit card numbers and transmit those numbers over the Internet, the on-line retailer should safeguard the numbers in order to prevent others from obtaining them. In addition, when products are distributed in electronic form, an on-line retailer should protect the products to prevent unauthorized access and distribution of the products.
Accordingly, a need exists for secure electronic commerce to prevent fraudulent attempts to obtain products.